Wavicle

They aren’t designed to fill a tank role. They are designed to fill a support role. They don’t typically get pets in the primary that’s just dark miasma. Which is just the example I used.

So are people saying they think this would be either overpowered or underpowered? I would think the numbers could be tweaked to make that not the case.

What you've just described is the Arachnos classes. The whole point of this design is to use the exisiting Buff sets.

My design here is based on a suggestion made by GM Jimmy in a conversation on Excelsior. I had no idea that there had been a previously considered archetype with the same name. We can change the name.

Proposal for a new archetype: The Protector, melee support specialist. The Protector has a buff/debuff primary and melee damage secondary. They take a pure support role alongside defenders and controllers, they lack the range but make up for it with survivability. Their buff/debuff and CC values are similar to those of a corruptor (perhaps very slightly better), but they have hit points closer to a stalker. The range of most of their buff/debuff abilities is no more than that of sentinel's blast abilities. Their melee attacks do somewhat less than tanker damage, with base damage slightly higher than a brute but a cap lower than a tanker. Their self defense caps are around those of a stalker. Like most melee attackers they get Build Up or some other damage boost in their attack set. They do not get Confront, but instead get Power Placate, which does not allow you to get critical strikes but gives a 10 second Power Boost effect when used. The Protector has an inherent power that helps them survive in the melee environment, Stalwart, a passive power that gives a small amount of protection from sleep, stun, and hold and gives a moderate absorb shield that gradually refills when depleted. It also grants a buff to the range of many of their buff/debuff abilities that increases as team health decreases. The range buff does not activate when solo. Their Ancillary and Patron pools look similar to those of defenders, but with short range attacks instead of melee, and of course without access to Power Boost or Power Build Up or other powers now available in their secondary sets. None of their epic pools would include sniper attacks, but their Patron pools would include pets at the highest tier. A sample Protector powerset combination: Primary Powerset: Dark Miasma 1 Twilight Grasp 1 Tar Patch 2 Darkest Night 6 Howling Twilight 8 Shadow Fall 12 Fearsome Stare 18 Petrifying Gaze 26 Black Hole 32 Dark Servant Secondary Powerset: Psionic Melee 1 Mental Strike 2 Psi Blade 4 Telekinetic Blow 10 Power Placate 16 Psi Blade Sweep 20 Concentration 28 Boggle 35 Greater Psi Blade 38 Mass Levitate Ancillary Pool: Electricity Mastery 35 Electric Fence 35 Ball Lightning 41 Charged Armor 41 Shocking Bolt 44 Power Sink With their higher hit points and defensive inherent ability the Protector serves as a lightly armored support specialist, somewhat tougher than a defender despite slightly less powerful buffs. Their low base damage and damage cap gives them damage close to that of defenders, but their need to be in melee to do that damage puts them at greater risk despite their resilience. The Protector fills one of the last holes in the archetype system, giving the player near total flexibility in choosing powerset combinations for their character. EDITS: Changed Placate to Power Placate (Placate+10 second Power Boost) and changed name from Guardian to Protector.

I just had an idea though. What if Sentinel primaries got Build Up (with +Range) instead of Aim?

Agreed. But generally speaking, although stalkers and blasters are more bursty, stalkers, scrappers, and blasters are all roughly equal (roughly) in terms of what they bring to a team. If you need a damage dealer any one of them will do. The same must be able to be said of sentinels. Since they lack Build Up and melee attacks, their ranged attacks need to at least do Almost as much as a blasters ranged attacks. The details on the snipe replacements and the nukes can be messed with to keep the flavor right.

well, it may be somewhat rhetorical. But honestly, I DO think it is as simple as just upping the damage and I'm not sure why he thinks otherwise. Are they near the bottom of popularity? Where's the list? (not rhetorical, where's the list?)

There are four "pure" dps classes: Scrappers, Stalkers, Blasters, and Sentinels. They all do slightly different levels of dps, but Scrapper, Stalker, and Blaster seem to generally be within a fairly small distance of one another. Sentinel is the outlier. It can remain the least damaging of the four, but the difference just needs to be less.

Again with the excessively complicated solutions to an incredibly simple problem. Sentinels defenses are totally fine. The Debuffs they bring are totally fine. They just need to do more damage. It is so simple. Why are we even discussing this?

I’m not really sure exactly what point you’re making now. I’m sure plenty of people are doing all of that on sentinels.

Just to be absolutely clear, the REASON you and your team are not getting hurt, mezzed, or end drained is because you all have stacking armors, buffs, etc. If it's binary as a team that means you're doing it right, but that doesn't mean each team member individually must be able to do +4/x8. You do it together.

I don't take offense, no worries. But yes, it is you and the people you play with. Also, notice NONE of the events you mentioned are Incarnate content. In Incarnate trials the caps are somewhat higher. But yes, fundamentally, the players who discuss issues on the forums have NEVER been representative of the player base as a whole. Most content, done by most players, does not have everyone constantly at the cap for everything but damage. And also note that the REASON damage is all that matters to you is because of all the investment you and your team has already put into defenses. They didn't go away when you got to these levels of performance. They ARE these levels of performance.

This is a very specialized interpretation of "endgame". Apparently by endgame you mean solo farming. Meanwhile on teams and in leagues none of what you said is true. There is a huge middle ground, because the difference is made by teammate buffs. But I agree the non offense stances could use improvement, and that the concept of stances is not bad on its face.

I feel like the design of the archetype is fine. Just increase the damage across the board. Maybe slightly increase the Heal effect from Defensive. Done. All these complicated solutions...

People were talking about roles, and also worrying about treading on the territory of team support toons. It seems to me it makes some sense for Sentinels to be a LITTLE bit support-like. Blaster and Stalker are super self focused. Scrapper can off tank a little bit, even without Confront. Sentinel being able to support a little bit makes some sense in that context.

The problem with that solution is it makes them better at support but does not make them better damage dealers. Since the problem with the AT is that they are a Pure DPS class that does bad DPS, giving them more support is not a solution.

That is a fair point.

I would like Sentinels to have a sort of Anti-Scourge. That is to say I would like Sentinels to get Critical damage on mobs whose health is at 80% or Higher. Crits to Lead off the fight.

Please fix the mistimed SFX for Energy Blast Fast Snipe!

cool, thanks in retrospect though, maybe I should have made it Dual Pistols and Dual Blades...somehow involve the DP attacks in the DB combos I guess in addition to the Swap Ammo clone

Places there should be crafting tables (off the top of my head): Every Wentworth's/Black Market should have one. Pocket D should have a couple. There should probably be one in each Vault Reserve area. Put one or two in the Shadow Shard bases. One at Portal Corp, one in Grandville. Maybe First Ward. And let's throw in a few in random secret locations. Maybe the hidden lounge in Faultline...where else would you like to see a crafting table?

That's awesome! Thank you!

Good idea! I'll add it to the original post!

Here's my concept for a Weaponized Assault set for Dominators featuring both Katana and Dual Pistols. 1. Pistols 2. Sting of the Wasp 4. Empty Clips 10. Flashing Steel 16. Arms Expert (Swap Ammo, but it effects both your DP and your Katana attacks, plus your katana does extra damage to enemies you recently shot with your pistols) 20. The Lotus Drops 28. Piercing Rounds 35. Golden Dragonfly 38. Executioner's Shot I would love to play some version of this set. Mind/Weapons would be fun I think.